Drone Control
The Drone Control system powers and operates two to three Drones. Drones perform various tasks such as attacking enemy ships and crew, defending your ship and crew, and repairing your ship. Drone schematics are slotted into the drone control system from the equipment screen and can then be deployed by powering them, though only one drone may be deployed for each schematic. Most ships will have slots for two drone schematics; the exceptions are all Engi Cruisers, and the Stealth Cruiser C/Simo-H which have 3 slots. Each drone requires one to four power to operate depending on the schematic and powering up the slot the schematic occupies will activate the respective drone; if that drone is not deployed, a drone part will be spent to deploy a copy of that drone, and a destroyed drone can be redeployed after a short delay. The drone system can be upgraded to handle up to eight bars of power, though the current level limits the number of drones you can use. The drone system only comes pre-installed on Engi cruisers, the Cerenkov, The Basilisk, and the Simo-H; other ships must first buy the system at a Store, whereupon the system will start with 2 bars of power and come with a free drone schematic. The free drone schematic can be either a System Repair Drone, a Defense Drone Mark I, or a Combat Drone Mark I. The cost of buying the system from a Store depends on the free drone schematic that comes with it. If the free schematic is a System Repair Drone, the system costs 75 scrap; otherwise, it costs 85 scrap. Overview Powers all of the ship's drones. Drones are automated robots that perform tasks like attacking enemy ships or repairing systems. * Powers all of the ship's drones. * Drones are automated robots that each perform a different task. * Activating a drone is done in a similar way as activating weapons, by clicking on or pressing the key (5-7). ** Activating a drone will power it and, if the drone is not already deployed, will spend one drone part to deploy the drone. ** The drone will stay active until it is destroyed, its system is too damaged to power it, or you deactivate it. ** External and boarding drones are lost when jumping to a new system and have to be redeployed at each new location or encounter, though a Drone Recovery Arm lets you recover the drone parts of external drones. ** Crew drones stay on the ship and only need to be redeployed when destroyed. * Upgrading lets you power more drones simultaneously (although you can have multiple deployed and only have one powered at a time, switching power as necessary). * Most ships have 2 slots for Drone Schematics, though a few ships have 3. * Drones that fly around a ship can be shot down by enemy fire if they are in direct line of fire. Your weapons cannot hit your own drones. *Crew and boarding drones can be damaged and destroyed by hostile crewmen, and also take damage if the room they are in is struck by a missile, laser, bomb (except for Healing Burst or Repair Burst), or flak, or if the tile they occupy is hit by a beam (except for the Anti-Bio Beam). Guide and Tactics Like with weapons, stronger drones require more power, which can limit the ability to have all drones active at the same time — though this is mitigated slightly by the fact that most ships only have 2 drone slots, so both slots can be powered even with the most power-hungry drones once the system is fully upgraded. Furthermore, not all drones are useful in the same situations, so a fully upgraded drone control may be more of a luxury to soak damage than a requirement to actually use all of your drones. Some drones, such as the Hull Repair Drone are also useful out of combat, so they can even be stored in the cargo bay and only fitted as needed. As it can recover some of the drone parts used in a battle, a drone recovery arm is a very useful Augmentation for any ship that relies on drones heavily. Additionally, the Drone Reactor Booster that comes fitted to The Vortex and can be installed on other ships from The Engi Virus event is somewhat useful since crew drones move more slowly than regular crew, but is still somewhat replaceable since crew drones spend more time standing around. The Defense Scrambler fitted to the Tetragon and purchasable at a store is an awesome augment, as it prevents defensive drones from locking on to anything letting your combat drones orbit unopposed and for Hacking and boarding drones to land in ships with defense drones orbiting. Though you can depower hacking drones just as a defense drone fires to "dodge" the shot and just hack through any number of defense drones. Bypass Enemy Defense Drones Exploit: The player can bypass enemy Defense Drones by using Boarding Drones, Ion Intruders, and even Hacking by managing the power in the respective Drone/System at the right time. When the enemy Defense Drone fires a shot at the respective approaching Drone, the player can shut off the Drone/System to stop the Drone where it is at and cause it to become immune to damage. After a brief moment, restoring power to the respective Drone/System will continue the fired Drone from where it was at, usually giving it enough time to hit the enemy ship. Blue Options Some equipment opens additional Options during certain events. While the Drone Control System itself does not open any options, the various different drones do. Drone Schematics A drone schematic is required to operate a drone, and there are four types: Boarding Drones, Combat Drones, Crew Drones, and Defensive Drones. Boarding Drones Tip: Boarding Drones require 1 drone part to deploy for each new enemy. They will board the enemy ship and attack as long as they are powered. When deployed, Boarding Drones fly to an enemy ship, breach the hull and attack crew and systems inside. They are unaffected by fires, oxygen depletion, and ion blasts. They pass through regular shields and, unlike missiles or bombs, they cannot miss. However, Boarding Drones can be shot down by defensive drones (though an Anti-Combat Drone will only momentarily delay Boarding Drones). Zoltan shields will block boarding drones until removed. Drones can't board a cloaked ship until it decloaks (if deployed against a cloaked ship they will orbit till that ship decloaks). And like all drones, the player has no direct control of them. Boarding Drone Breaches through the enemy hull and wreaks havoc. Awesome. * Passes through any level of regular shields. * Boards enemy ships and attacks enemy crewmen. * Health: 150 * Speed: 18 * Power: 3 * Rarity: 4 * ID: BOARDER * Cost: 70 Boarding Drone (Boss) Breaches through the enemy hull and wreaks havoc. Awesome. * Rebel Flagship's special boarding drone. It is unique to the Flagship. * Not recognized as an option in the Giant Alien Spiders event, likely all other Blue options as well. * Passes through any level of regular shields. * Health: 150 * Speed: 18 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 0 * ID: BOARDER_BOSS * Cost: 70 (cannot be bought nor found) Ion Intruder Breaches through the enemy hull and randomly ionizes systems. * Passes through any level of regular shields. * Periodically emits an ion blast that does ion damage to a system and stuns enemy crew then moves to a different, non-ioned system. * Health: 125 * Speed: 18 * Power: 3 * Rarity: 4 * Cost: 65 * ID: BOARDER_ION * Advanced Edition only. Tip: When used against the Rebel Flagship, Ion Intruder always targets the isolated weapons rooms first. Tip: Specific animation played few seconds before its charge attack gives enough time to leave the room to avoid being stunned. Combat Drones Tip: Combat Drones require 1 drone part to deploy at each encounter and, if destroyed in battle, 1 more drone part each time redeployed. They will attack the enemy as long as they are powered and can freely be switched on and off. You can only power and deploy a combat drone when in combat. Combat drones orbit the enemy ship and attack it at regular intervals choosing targets on their own. They can be destroyed if they happen to fly into the path of enemy weapons fire or asteroids, but they can only be intentionally attacked by the Anti-Combat Drone. Players may intentionally shoot enemy combative drones by carefully timing shots and positioning their ship's laser, ion, or missile weapons to intercept. Though combat drones cannot be controlled and often will choose undesirable targets (such as empty rooms), their increased rate of fire in comparison to ship weapons causes them to do incredibly rapid damage to the enemy hull when shields are down. If you are planning to use a combat drone strategy, make sure you have some way of quickly disabling, destroying, or overwhelming the enemy shields so your drones can make short work of the enemy ship. Missile, flak weapons, and the hacking system are good for this. Combat Drone Mark I Powerful drone that continually attacks the enemy ship. * Continually attacks the enemy ship with a single laser blast; slower than normal shield recharge. * Can be given for free upon installation of Drone Control system. * Speed: 15 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 2 * ID: COMBAT_1 * Cost: 50 Combat Drone Mark II Powerful drone that continually attacks the enemy ship. Moves and shoots faster than Mark I. * Increased rate of fire and speed of maneuvering. * Speed: 28 * Power: 4 * Rarity: 5 * ID: COMBAT_2 * Cost: 75 Anti-Ship Beam Drone I Combat Drone that repeatedly attacks with a small beam weapon. * Uses a small beam weapon to continually attack the enemy ship. While fast and 100% accurate, the beam cannot penetrate shields at all. * Beam length: 20 (0.4 tile diagonally) * Speed: 15 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 3 * ID: COMBAT_BEAM * Cost: 50 Anti-Ship Beam Drone II Combat drone that repeatedly attacks with a larger beam weapon. * Moves a bit slower than Mark I, but has a longer beam length, so it can often hit 2 rooms. Also does 2 damage to a Zoltan Shield, compared to 1 for Mark I. * Beam length: 40 (0.9 tile diagonally) * Speed: 11 * Power: 3 * Rarity: 5 * Cost: 60 * ID: COMBAT_BEAM_2 * Advanced Edition only. Anti-Ship Fire Drone Combat drone that repeatedly attacks with a small beam weapon that lights rooms on fire. * A variant of the beam drone that uses a Fire Beam equivalent to ignite specific rooms. * Beam length: 10 (0.2 tile diagonally) * Speed: 12 * Power: 3 * Rarity: 4 * ID: COMBAT_FIRE * Cost: 50 * Advanced Edition only. Anti-Ship Ion Drone I Slow moving drone that repeatedly attacks the enemy ship with ion blasts * Unused drone in the game files * Can be obtained with save editing * Has same texture as Combat Drone Mark I * Does 1 ion damage * Speed: 5 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 0 * ID: COMBAT_ION * Cost: 50 (cannot be bought nor found) Anti-Ship Missile Drone I Slow moving drone that repeatedly attacks the enemy ship with mini missiles * Unused drone in the game files * Can be obtained with save editing * Has same texture as Combat Drone Mark I * Missiles go through shields * Speed: 5 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 0 * ID: COMBAT_MISSILE * Cost: 50 (cannot be bought nor found) Crew Drones Tip: Crew Drones require 1 drone to deploy, but will not need to be deployed again until destroyed. They stay on ship and help your crew as long as they are powered. Crew drones are deployed on your own ship and act like AI controlled crew members. They are unaffected by low oxygen, immune to fire, and similarly to your crew take no effect from ion blasts. When not needed they will return to the drone bay where they will be repaired (similarly to MedBay) so long as the drone system is powered. They are typically slower moving than crew but the Drone Reactor Booster increases the movement speed of these drones. Anti-Personnel Drone Will seek out and attempt to destroy any intruders on-board your ship. * Attacks random hostile boarding crews, but moves slower than default crew movement speed. ** Does not suffocate, ideal for facing Lanius intruders or Boarding Drones. ** Fireproof. ** Unaffected by ion blasts. ** Will attack friendly crew (to your ship or the enemy ship) that are mind controlled. ** Heals at the Drone Control room. ** Deals damage equivalent to an untrained Mantis. * Health: 150 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 2 * ID: BATTLE * Cost: 35 System Repair Drone Will seek out damaged systems and repair them automatically. * Repairs damaged systems, but moves slower than default crew movement speed. ** Gives System and Sub-System rooms priority, repairing rooms in the order that they were damaged. ** Does not suffocate, making it useful for repairing breaches or rooms that have no oxygen. ** Fireproof. ** Ignores enemy boarders. ** Will break down doors to reach rooms that need repairs if they are blocked/locked. * Can be given for free upon installation of Drone Control system. * Power: 1 * Rarity: 1 * ID: REPAIR * Cost: 30 Hull Repair Drone Automatically repairs 3-5 damage to your hull. Drone part is consumed once it finishes. * Moves around and outside of your ship, repairing 3-5 hull points and then self-destructs. * Can be shot down by stray fire. * Each deployment requires a drone part. Drone Recovery Arm will not recover it after it self-destructs. Prior to FTL 1.6 AE, it was possible to jump before repair is finished, for a free repair (see bugs). * Can be helpful as a way to repair hull when fighting the Rebel Flagship. * As repair costs at Stores increase in each Sector, can become more cost-efficient alternative once Store repairing costs 3 scrap or more. * Speed: 20 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 4 * ID: SHIP_REPAIR * Cost: 85 Defensive Drones Tip: Defensive Drones require 1 drone part to deploy at each new location. they will defend your ship as long as they are powered. Defensive drones orbit your own ship and shoot down asteroids, enemy weapons fire, and some drones. Unless destroyed, they can be recovered with the Drone Recovery Arm augment upon jumping. It is possible for defensive drones to miss their target, letting the occasional shot get through. Like all drones, their targeting is not player-controlled, so their target selection and timing may prove sub-optimal. They also require approximately a second to acquire a target after being deployed or reactivated; powering up as soon as an enemy missile launches is sufficient. Defense Drone Mark I Shoots down incoming missiles, asteroids, and flak debris. * Shoots down incoming missiles, hacking and boarding drones, individual flak debris, and asteroids with its laser. * Can be given for free upon installation of Drone Control system. * Cooldown: 1000 ms * Speed: 5 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 1 * ID: DEFENSE_1 * Cost: 50 Defense Drone Mark II It fires faster than Mark I and can also shoot down incoming lasers. * Shoots down incoming missiles, hacking and boarding drones, individual flak debris, asteroids, but also ion blasts and lasers (including those shot by combat drones). * Cooldown: 880 ms * Speed: 7 * Power: 3 * Rarity: 3 * ID: DEFENSE_2 * Cost: 70 Defense Drone Mark II (Boss) Shoots faster than Mark I and can also shoot down incoming lasers. * Unlike its name suggests, the Rebel Flagship doesn't use this drone. (anymore?) * Unusable during Blue options. * Shoots down incoming missiles, hacking and boarding drones, ion blasts, individual flak debris, asteroids, and lasers. * Cooldown: 750 ms (faster than others) * Speed: 7 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 0 * ID: BOSS_DEFENSE_2 * Cost: 75 (cannot be bought nor found) Defense Drone Mark II (Enemy) BUG- Should not be seen (Yes that is the description) * Enemies use this? * Cooldown: 880 ms * Speed: 7 * Power: 3 * Rarity: 0 * ID: DEFENSE_2_ENEMY * Cost: 70 Anti-Combat Drone Stuns combat drones attacking your ship. * Stuns Combat, Hacking, and Boarding drones with Ion weapon. Each shot has a chance to outright destroy the affected drone. * Cooldown: 7000 ms * Speed: 5 * Power: 1 * Rarity: 1 * ID: ANTI_DRONE * Cost: 35 * Advanced Edition only. Shield Overcharger Creates single Supershield barrier periodically. * Periodically adds 1 point of Zoltan's Super Shield to regular shields. * Each additional layer has longer cool-down time: 8s/10s/13s/16s/20s for 0/1/2/3/4 existing layers. Each timer resets should the drone become unpowered. * Overcharged shields return to normal state after jumping away. * Useful on Pulsars, as 1 Super Shield layer is enough to negate its charge. * Blocks mind control, teleporting, hacking and boarding drones, and bombs - unless Zoltan Shield Bypass is installed on the attacking ship. * Delays missiles, lasers, flak, asteroids, and ion shots. * Cooldown: 15000 ms (it's not actually this, but the game files say so...) * Speed: 5 * Power: 3 * Rarity: 4 * ID: DRONE_SHIELD * Cost: 60 * Advanced Edition only. Shield Overcharger + Creates single Supershield barrier periodically. This modified schematic requires 1 less power. * Variant of the Shield Overcharger that only comes equipped on Simo-H. * Every 8 seconds, one bar of supershields is applied over shielding up to the maximum of 5 bars. Every layer of supershield slows the generation of the next layer by approximately 3 seconds. * Shields overcharged by this drone return to normal after jumping away from the last location it was active. * Cooldown: 15000 ms * Speed: 5 * Power: 2 * Rarity: 0 * ID: DRONE_SHIELD_PLAYER * Cost: 60 (cannot be bought nor found) * Advanced Edition only. Category:Systems